Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Overturning an Existing Decree

[Music] okay everybody I hope you're fast was you know the common greeting is you wish people at some cow but many people have pointed out that a sum is not supposed to be cow we're supposed to suffer in eight some so the substitution is I hope you're fast was meaningful even if it was a little bit difficult this is actually the shortest fest of the year so hopefully it was not excessively difficult I want to say if you thought about our behaviour and I think I don't remember I think this may not be repetitive for what I said I think it may be something totally new although I can't promise and that is I want to share with you a thought of two thoughts of the kasam Sofer and that sort of at a base and point number one is based on a very enigmatic statement of the abou Trahan or observer that would rahama was one of the Rochon him who wrote extensively on Tefila on min hug him and the bay show safe often quotes the abou drama as a very major authority and the abou drom says that if i saw her but a base were to fall out on Shabbos you would actually fast even on Shabbos now this is an untested hypothetical because under the present Jewish calendar the tenth of Taber's can never fall out in Chaves because as you know the calendar is based on certain days of the week Rosh Hashanah cannot fall out on the first day of Rosh Hashanah cannot fall out on Sunday Wednesday or Friday that's a rule of the Jewish calendar that's called low I do Rosh I do a little above low a do Rosh Rosh cannot a Rosh Hashanah cannot be Aleph da late or both now I'll give you the reason for that in a moment but given the fact that the Jewish calendar is based on that assumption that automatically is going to affect all other holidays in the year given the different lengths of the month the 29 and the 30 so male age will turn out if Rosh Hashana cannot fall out an olive talmud bava it becomes impossible extrapolating further into the air for our survivors to ever be on Chaves a digression it's not our topic at all but since I mentioned lo I do relish let me just very quickly give the reason for that Rosh Hashanah cannot fall out on Wednesday or Friday for the following reason if Rosh Hashana were to fall out on Wednesday then Yom Kippur would be on Friday I do understand that right and similarly for Shoshanna were to fall out on Friday your Kippur would be on Sunday so what the Jewish calendar does not want to happen is it does not want Yom Kippur to be the day before Shabbos or the day after Shabbos we don't want a Shabbos and the yom kippur to be two consecutive days the reason for that is that the halacha is that you cannot bury a dead body you cannot bury emit on yom kippur or Shabbos you could theoretically do it on yom tov if you had to and in the days when dead bodies could not be preserved in refrigerators if there would be literally two consecutive days where you could not do a funeral then god forbid the body could decompose and the like and therefore the whole Jewish calendar is structured that Yom Kippur can be on Shabbos of course but Yom Kippur can not be on Friday Yom Kippur cannot be on Sunday therefore Rosh Hashanah cannot be on Wednesday or Friday now the reason why the first day of Rosh Hashanah cannot be on Sunday these are totally different Greece nothing to do with Yom Kippur that is if Rosh Hashanah were to be on sunday hosanna raba the day that we beat the willows would be on Shabbos and it would be on Shabbos we wouldn't be able to beat the Willows because you don't take Lula vestro glory or the ear of us I know Shauna rava but the Mitzvah of beating the willow is so significant that the cumin rearranged the whole Jewish calendar that oceania rabba will never come out on Shabbos okay this is not our topic at all but given the reality of lo a do rosh right lo a do rosh it is impossible for us arabic a vase to ever be on a Shabbos but remember that the rule of law I do Roach is a rule of the Jewish calendar and the Jewish calendar became operative only after the Sun Hedren discontinued sanctifying the new moon by the visual observation of witnesses meaning if we were to go back to be Mac adesh our Pieria sanctifying by eyewitnesses then restauranteur could be any day of the week that the witnesses come and therefore our survey tables could be in Chaves but in the present calendar that's an impossibility but the average ROM says as the theoretical idea and I'll explain why that if I serve at a base would fall on Shabbat we would even fast on Shabbat and in point of fact although Kanaka mother and Shabbat observatories can't come out on Friday and I don't know if you remember this or experience this it is the only fast day of the year where we cannot we actually fast on Friday we fast until she does time so that itself is already a little bit of an indication that there's something unique about a sort of bit a bit well then you don't if a time for example tiny sets there comes out on Friday you fast on Thursday you faster earlier in other words because the reason for that is that's the same way you don't fast in Shabbat because we don't want you to be in distress so we don't want you to fast on Friday because then you would be entering Shabbat in a state of distress so that's supposed to fast on Friday either you are supposed to eat less on Friday which is something people need to be aware of because one should enter the Shabbat with a good appetite because you honor Shabbat by you know eating heartily but one should not fast totally because that could result in some sorrow at the beginning of of Shabbat so the question becomes what is so significant about a sort of excitement I mean what happened in arbitary only one historical event this was the beginning of the Bukit net Czar's siege against Jerusalem which culminated several years later with the destruction of the temple but it was the beginning of the siege nothing really happened other than the beginning of the siege now if the ninth of our where the temple was actually destroyed falls on Shabbat we do not fast in Shabbat we fast on Sunday so you're not allowed to violate Shabbos even for tisha buff so why on earth would a sorry but a vase be more significant be more cautious than even the ninth evolve itself now some one answer might be more of a pill Paulista cancer that is of climb selves a success that Tish above is a 24 hours passed a sort of beat a basis only from dawn to the Stars coming up so maybe it could be like this it's not that a service a base is more important than the ninth of us but rather we will allow a surrogate a vase to override Shabbos because it is not going to be a complete fast you'll still be able to have a meal Friday night Marcia in Cana fish above were to override Shabbos then you wouldn't be honoring Shabbos at all but even if that's a good answer for dish above it doesn't explain the 17th of Tammuz if the 17th of timeless falls out on Shabbos we don't fast even though it is only a daytime fest so why is that why is that sort of behavior is different so the other drum himself gives a textual reason he doesn't give a logical reason he gives a textual reason and that is in the book of your fresco and I think we've talked about this a number of times yes let's kill and yirme'yahu were contemporary Navi they lived exactly the same time unlike ushio who lived over a hundred years earlier Ushio was alive when the ten tribes were exiled from Eretz Israel human yelling Yehezkel were both the prophets of the destruction but the difference is the efest scale lived in bevelle and your meal lived in Eretz Israel and in the book of Moluccan we are told that the roulade nets are sent into exile a significant segment of the Jewish people 11 years before the horbet that is called the godless of yo-yoin who was the King at the time and that was the 11 years earlier and then the last king of the first Commonwealth was Scipio amela and the bond was called the goddess of sitio and there's an 11 year gap so for those 11 years your SQL is in Bevelle yummy Yahoo is in Eric Israel you know of course is an actual witness to the korba he wrote a megillah' take and limitations now in the book of your fresco when your fest scale is given prophecies about the destruction of the temple he is told by Hashem write down on a piece of parchment the etson hyomezo on this very day tenth of today's new hetnet czars armies have laid siege to Jerusalem in other words this was a mechanism to validate the festival's credentials as a prophet because the news wouldn't reach barbell till months later and when the news reached barbell months later that a siege had begun on the 10th of tavis the festival pulled out his piece of parchment that said that predicted exactly on that day the siege would happen so says the avid Rahab since the Navi of Hashem uses the phrase be at some hyomezo on that very day that means the commemoration of that day cannot be varied it is fixed it is absolute no matter what happens the fast must be observed because it is called the x7a Yama's ah now that's not a reason that's a proof that maybe it's a proof text but that does not explain why would we treat the 10th of Tavis which is the beginning of a siege in a stricter way than we would treat the 9th of hour which is the actual corpsman based on mikdash or even the 17th of Tammuz which is when the Babylonians and later the Romans broke through the wall of the speak so let me share with you a thought of the for some so for him but no you can't cause ashamed do something like show well we understand yeah yeah well the truth of the matter is the notion of those fast days we find in the Navi society but how exactly a later profit we have to assume they were not established by prophecy they were established by telling us comin and the Navi is simply revealing when something's going to add when something's going to happen and the forum amused the language of that neva has the basis for their tikona so the fast days technically technically are considered to be rabbinic we've been a case now the decipher points out the rule that we don't fast on Shabbos which is a rule you got a lot too fast in Shabbos does have one interesting exception and that is you're allowed to fast if you had a bad dream there is a hawawa called tonight alone tennis how long simply means somebody had a dream god forbid there was a death there was a tragedy a dream that something frightening has occurred so one of the ways that you can get the dream annulled or reinterpreted in a positive way is by tynus by fasting now the post come do say that miss Mullen said we don't encourage people to add on fast because fast days often make us weak and we can't concentrate on governing and other things so instead you either give charity or you have or or and you say something in The Sitter that's actually called a toga column it's a prayer that the dream should be made oh good and you may also recall the one Kohanim Dukan when Kohanim recite the barre class column in between the verses there is a rebo no shel olam prayer where you pray to Hashem that whatever dreams you had should be turned into dreams of blessing just like the dreams of Yosef now what's interesting is no that's what I'm saying what's interesting is that there's a difference between hood florets and at least you Shailaja in hood florets which ought where we work where we only done on Yom Tov we don't talkin during the week please Ashkenazim so when the Kohanim finished the plastic reflection Bheeshma refa they sing until the next buzzer and the rabona shel olam can be recited while the Kohanim Armand again now that has precedent in the Gemara itself the Gemara itself says your house column is an auspicious time to pray to wash em that your dreams should go well and you say a prayer while the Kohanim are singing now the minute of you shall I am Mahalo process as you undoubtedly know is that there is no hep stick there is no break between the verses the representation wherever you are they keep on going so when are you supposed to say the revarnished all of them you actually don't have time to save the rear burnish loan and you're not supposed to say it while the Kohanim are saying the words of bureaucrats : M because you're supposed to be listening to the brother and accepting it so we kind of lose out on that particular opportunity although some shows have the minute that even though in Yerushalayim we do in every day Soyoung TIFF is no different than during the week but when they do con on yom tov they will sing between the verses so essentially at least you don't lose out meaning to say whatever you were able to do it puts laureates you can still do here but for the daily deafening they're not going to give you that particular opportunity but even though it may be true that we don't encourage people to fast but the law is on the books you are allowed to fast a tiny column even on Shabbos miss onon thomas alone a feel of a showers but there's a rub you're allowed to fast even on Shabbos but to atone for the fact that you fasted on Shabbos you have to have another fast so if I fast at a time this fellowmen shadows I'd rather have another fast to give me an atonement for fasting and Shabbos so I'll just warn you if you ever find yourself in that predicament make sure that you don't do the second fast on Shabbos because then you'll need a third one etc so it'll key it'll keep on going so the second fast sheet is a daytime fest yeah yes yes yes well you try to do it as soon as possible after the home and it is recorded people and I saw this more than once when people would come to the coverage hiya Shabbos there were times it was recorded that he didn't eat and he said because it was the tiniest hello and apparently this happened more than once because I at least I read different stories different people that just said he he didn't eat on Shabbos whenever it would be okay although I have maybe an alternative explanation the first time was very poor and I'm just wondering if perhaps he didn't have enough food in the house and he gave it to the guests and he didn't want the guests to be embarrassed making something up I have no idea if it's true but I could certainly imagine the possibility of that scenario he didn't want to say oh there's not enough food for me so I gave it to you that would make the guests feel rotten so instead he said I'm not eating because I have a tiny tiny table whatever it is okay but whatever the reason whatever the den the question is why is the time this how long difference than the other times so the some surfer says the difference is the following all other fast days like the ninth of of 17th of Tammuz are commemorating tragic events of the past on Shabbos we don't want to crowd our mind with distressing thoughts that make us and we don't want to remember the destruction of the temple the Exile of the Jewish people the sufferings that we've gone through so we don't fast on Shabbos because we don't want to bring back the unpleasant memories that will give us sadness but a tiny Shalom is not about fasting for what happened in the past a tiny Shalom is a form of prayer to avert a tragedy of the future so therefore I Thomas alone is not so much a fast of mourning and sadness it is more of an expression of prayer that the bad should be converted into something good not only that but psychologically there for a time as hell um can actually make you feel better why is that so because the person has a bad dream they're anxious they're fearful they're scared they're afraid that the almighty is sending them a negative message if they can do something about it they can fast there may be a psychological feeling that Baruch Hashem I did something that may rectify this situation so in a sense therefore unlike the ton nation that are connected to the past a Thainess Hollow ms Mutara because it is a prayer to prevent something negative in the future and if therefore psychologically relieves the anxiety that a person might have but they couldn't do anything about their matzah right so that's time that's come up so now says the foursome so fair an amazing finish I saw Rebecca vase is similar to a time it's Hollow even though on its face it seems to be commemorating a tragedy that happened in the past like the ninth of of in reality it is a prayer to avert a calamity of the future and this is the foursome so first finish he says we know there are metal days in the Jewish calendar that are that are denominated Yom hadn't the day of judgment Rosh Hashanah is the outstanding example on Rosh Hashanah God the sides who will live and who will die there's a preliminary judgment which is finalized on Yom Kippur the mission in russia china says Sukkos God judges how much water the world's will get pizza God judges the grain that will be here Shavuos this is all the Mishnah God judges the pay rotary lung the fruits of the tree there are days in which God judges days of judgment days of decision for the coming year says the for some so fair a Sura but a vase is the yom Hadean whether or not the base hammock - will be rebuilt this year which means today was the day that a sham decided if 5780 will be the air it is a yamaha din for Binion great Tomic - therefore we are fasting not only to mourn the past we are fasting so almost like Yom Kippur were fasting to get in atonement to merit the Binion base Tomic - this year now you might ask the question well if that's the case so is there any point of about praying for the Binion beit hamikdash once a service a base past we either got a favorable then or didn't get a favorable den well look at you look at our own lives every single day three times a day we ask a Shem for life we ask a Shem for health we ask a gem for prime NASA now you might wonder why am i praying after Yom Kippur on Yom Kippur God decided what my Panozzo will be for 5780 God decided if I'm going to be healthy for 5780 so why am i prank am i praying for 5781 advance of next rester sauna well that may be true too but I think everybody understands I'm also praying for the situation now if somebody is sick now we pray for them well why don't you be a fatalist and simply say well whatever was the greed on Yom Kippur is what's going to happen the answer is a very important answer that it's true that on Yom Kippur there's a Gazzara meaning God makes the final decree but with chuva and Fela and Stucker repentance prayer charity good deeds you can rip up even an existing Gazzara meaning in some sense there is no such thing as ultimate irreversible finality but it is true that it is harder to change a final judgment than it is to try to get a better judgment before it's issued to work very hard restaurant of Yom Kippur to have a favorable judgment but if even if God forbid we flunked that and if God forbid we have a negative judgment and we don't know nobody knows never give up because shoo votes filled with stuff and that's why it's very exact shuva it's Felix Tucker my Veeran it passes away rora hot gears a rock the work as they rise very important as everyone means even if Hashem has already decreed your fate it's final it's a final Court judgement it can be ripped up but it takes much more effort so by the same token going back to our sorry but a vase if I survive it a vase is the yom harden of Binion beit hamikdash that doesn't mean once that day passes there's no reason to pray like anything else Surat Felix calm Viren oh are you Sarah but still it's going to be harder to change and therefore that of some so for says this is the explanation of the abou drama that if it would fall out on Shabbos you would fast and indeed if it falls out on Friday we do fast because it is together of a time yet how long it is a prayer to change the future event rather than mourn over the past very very interesting foolish that a Suribachi vase is the yom i did for the Binion based on McNish i have to go back i don't remember if he has a source or this is just a finish a finish that he says I didn't hear you yes cyka cyka is for water for rain Pesach is for grain and Shavuos is payro to iran the fruits of the tree and this is the Mishnah in russia Sharna that says there are four days of judgment and some sulfur is actually adding a fifth day of judgment he's adding a sort of butyrate as a day of judgment life and death in fact the Ryan himself has some interest in kasha he says given the fact that human beings cannot live without food and water so it's hard to understand this idea of four days of judgment I mean you're telling me I'm Russia shun that God decides who will live and who will die on succoth god decides the rain on Pesach God decides the grain and sugarless God decides the fruit but without water grain maybe to a lesser degree fruit we're not able to live so if God decided on Rosh Hashanah that I'm gonna live then by definition God decided that there would be enough water to keep me alive so there is a question conceptually how can you possibly regard these as four distinct days of judgment if Russia genre would apparently include everything right if God's giving you life God is going to give you enough water to keep you alive so how do you really understand that's a good question but that is what the mission says there are four days of judgment in the course of the Jewish year and the sub sofa is mahadesh that there's kind of a fifth now let me share with you another thought of the kasam sofa which is not directly about a sari but a base but it is about the morning for the temple there is a very very famous statement in the end of a set of tennis and I'm sure you've learnt it and heard of it before column Isabella you shall I am anyone who mourns over Jerusalem you mourn over the destruction you mourn over the goblets you mourn over the Horeb and of the basin McNish sofa Ferrara basim pasa now the standard translation is you will merit and you will see the eventual joy of Jerusalem you mourned you suffered God will give you the opportunity to experience the joy of its rebuilding and that is the standard translation and my guess is that that's how arts growver translated but the philosopher points out that is not grammatically correct because the words so fair Verona are not in future they're not blushing us it if it would have said column Isabella Lucia lion years care Veera shall merit shall see the some huh then it would mean what we said it means but so further Allah is not much honest it it is not future it is lost john hoeven it is present so what it literally means someone enigmatic Allah is he who mourns over Jerusalem merits right now in his morning to see the joy and the comfort how could that be he's morning he's crying how could that itself be a source of comfort so the philosopher says an ingenious thought if you remember by yosef when the brothers sold Joseph into slavery so how are they to explain Yossi his disappearance to Yaakov so they slaughtered a goat they dipped Joseph's coat into the blood and they brought back a coat they blood-stained garments to Yaakov and they said that Joseph was attacked by a wild animal and this is his blood on the coat and the pus 'ok then says that Yaakov could not be comforted no matter what Yaakov could not be comforting Rashi brings an interesting Naima has all that the reason Yaakov could not be comforted is a human being can be comforted only on a dead person he cannot be comforting when a person is still alive now let me explain that a little bit one of the great gifts that God has given us when we suffered tremendous adversity is the ability to forget not in the sense of taking it out of our memory but the ability as the expression goes time heals all wounds when a person suffers a loss that's so devastating a spouse a parent to child it really is a miracle how they can eventually go on but God created a mechanism where again forgetting has to be interpreted I don't mean forgetting and it was all don't mean forgetting but it means you forget the intensity of what that pain was and that is why although the pain can remain with a person all of their lives it kind of becomes compartmentalized they can put it in part of their brain and then the rest of themselves they can smile they can interact they can work they can have friends and that is a gift that God gave us because if we were to feel that original intensity of pain that would never diminish we could not go on life could not go on and if God wants life to go on then he's given us that concept that the pain gets smaller as time goes on never goes away but you can go on you can do it I remember you nineteen sixties the great rough salivating of yellow seed of salivate over each University sat Shiva three times he lost his brother then he lost his mother shortly afterwards and then he lost his wife with whom he was perhaps iver extremely close and people who knew him well I was not so hurt to know him well I know him a little bit but people who knew him well although he gave shiorin for another twenty years they say he never really recovered from these traumas he was not the same person but at the end of his third Shiva he said a beautiful thought there's a famous Madras that says that Hashem made many worlds before this world that he destroyed that that's one of the explanations for age of the earth that maybe these other worlds are referring to this planet going through ice ages and meteorite showers and everything else but whether it's some other planet or whether it refers to earth going through successive creations and recreations the question is why did God create many worlds just to destroy them Seraph salivate succeed the old mighty did it to teach us a lesson that even when our world gets shattered and destroyed we go on and we recreate a new one because that's what God did you don't give up you keep on going that of course was the history of the Jewish people think about many of you have family whether it's parents uncles grandparents surviving the Holocaust and some people had whole first families that that wiped out and one could imagine how broken how crushed a spirit would be and yet people come back they rebuilt they recreate they don't give up that is heroism that is greatness but it can only exist because God gave us this capacity to forget a little bit that the intensity gets a little lighter so we can go on now going back to Rashi this breath Allah only applies when someone's dead but when they're alive still then psychologically you never get quota that's why for example when parents are uncertain if their child is dead or alive at the Ohio limb that are taken in captivity it's an awful situation they cannot get over it they don't have closure because they never know they would actually rather know even if God forbid the child was dead than to be in this constant uncertainty now what's tricky is in the case of Yaakov cuz I'll seem to be making a metaphysical claim because it's one thing to say you're not comforted if you think your child is alive but the active actually thought Yosef was dead so if Yakov thought yes it was dead then why couldn't ya go be comforted the answer must be a metaphysical mystical reason meaning to say even if you subjectively think he's dead if in fact he's alive the forgetting mechanism doesn't tick it though there is just like a button that gets triggered by the fact of the death and if the death did not occur you're not comforted now why couldn't you have used that as proof that Yossi was still alive I don't know but that's what the Rashi says that Yaakov could not be comforted because a Makabe lean times human I'll have hi we don't get comforted when people are still alive so now let's look at the carbon based on McNish Faison mikdash has been destroyed almost 2,000 years Tobiah Chaney was destroyed year 70 this is 2020 why haven't we gotten over it why did you still mourn why did you still grieve why did you still cry if the idea of redemption would be dead if the possibility of rejuvenation would be gone we would get over it because that's the rule that you're McCabe Elton come in on ace the very fact that we still morning we still grieve and we haven't gotten over it itself is a source of joy because it shows that the idea of redemption is real and is a life and that is the meaning of the statement if you are still Mitte bail over your shall I am it is not simply a promise you will experience the joy but amidst the very fact that you are in mourning is a reason to feel joy because that means the idea of redemption is alive and that is why you are not the Cobell tons of human they tell a story this is a very very famous story and unfortunately a lot of the famous stories in the Jewish folklore turned out not to be historically accurate so I don't want to vouch for the historical accuracy of the story but it's a well-known vignette of Napoleon walking by a synagogue on Tisha buff he was either in Italy or in France and he saw Jews sitting on the floor with ashes on their heads sackcloth reading Tino's lamentations crying sobbing and you didn't know what that was so we ask somebody what's going on and someone told him well the Jews every year mourn the destruction of their temple and Napoleon said when was their temple destroyed they say oh it was destroyed around sixteen hundred years ago then so Napoleon said sixteen hundred years ago and they're still mourning any nation that remembers a tragic event that is almost 2,000 years ago for sure is going to experience a Redemption and a rejuvenation well I don't know if Napoleon read the for some Sofer I doubt it but it's very much the same same idea now let me give you an opposite version of the story which is very very tragic and that is when we don't remember the tragedies of our past and the history of our historical events that formed us then we're in very very big trouble this was a column that Jonathan rosenbloom wrote I think was around fifteen years ago it's not not recent he was describing a certain terrorist who was languishing in an Israeli prison for many many years until he was finally released and one of those prisoner swaps that Israel says we never do but they always do in which in order to get back Kayal a number of terrorists are released sometimes a thousand for one okay we can give a whole share about that that's it's a very painful topic on one hand it's something you'd be very proud of we care so much for our limb that will do anything to get them back on the other hand there is at least a very serious ethical problem that by getting one person back in exchange for releasing a thousand terrorists back into the population how many future people are you going to be killing in order to save that one person again I'm not here to talk about that but that's the issue so when this terrorists got got released he was welcomed like a hero back in Saudi Arabia and he was interviewed by al-jazeera al-jazeera's and the reporter asked him tell me in all of the years that you were languishing in the Israeli prison did you ever give up hope of your cause did you ever think it wasn't worth it did you ever think that Israel is so powerful their army is so much stronger than what we are what's the use of fighting and the terrorists said he was called a freedom fighter but alcohol the terrorists the terrorists said yes yes there were times where I thought I might as well give up what's the use Israel is so powerful we're not accomplishing anything wait we gained a little here a little here kill a person here in a bus here what are we really accomplishing but then something happened that made me realize god forbid I hate to even say these words that we will be victorious what happened this isn't the Al Jazeera interview it was the Jewish Pesach the Jewish Passover and I saw my Jewish guards eating a piece of pizza and pizza right mr. schmooze from a terrorist so I said then how can you eat pizza it's your place I can't eat bread on Tessa and the Jewish guard told me I'm not really interested what happened 2,000 years ago and what happened then doesn't affect me now and I have no reason to commemorate it or remember it this is what the terrorists said and maybe he's lying you know maybe it didn't happen listen to story that to the terrorists then said I knew then that we would win because we care about what happened 2,000 years ago and the Jews don't and because they don't they're going to lose Dabra dinella says into hilum co few tests 119 the a vital key Matheny the I by Takamine is saying to a Shem I will become wise even from my enemies even the enemies that are evil that IRA Shyam will sometimes be able to deliver a message to me that I have to internalize and they have to pay attention to now again of course we have a Munna that I Shen will protect armies RAL a Shah will protect Erik Israel but what is powerful about this story and extremely disturbing is that when Jews cut themselves off from remembering in this case you'd see estimates ryeom are remembering the hartmann based on McNish when they don't care about our history whether shem has done to us and for us then we are really endangering on Israel right the more we yearn for the goal up the more intensely and the more quickly it will come the less we care then the longer it will take it'll come it'll eventually come no matter what but at what cost practically Mara has a month amar the guar has an opinion that says that a rabbi said I hope mushiya comes but I don't want to be around when he comes because the cataclysmic events might be so devastating so going back to the for some chauffeur's point the reason why it says call them Isabella you shall I am Sofa very averse empresa he who mourns over Jerusalem merits and sees and experiences its joy it is not as a future statement it is not that they will experience but they experience it now because they know that if they still are mourning and grieving it is a reality to them it is something that's not dead it is something that's very much alive and because it's alive that gives me nahama in other words that's a bit of a paradox I am comforted by the fact that I am NOT comforted meaning my not being comforted becomes a source of comfort many of you remember again a very famous Gomorrah in my surface Marco's really one of the most famous I gotta toss in shots where in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt which was many years after the destruction of the temple Rabi Akiva and Herrmann are walking near the temple mount's and they see a show they see a fox running out of the sight of the co destruction the Holy of Holies and the Cohanim began to cry they were weeping and maybe Akiba started laughing and the Sun looked as rebbi akiva as if he was crazy they said what are you laughing about and he said to them well what are you crying about and they said what are we crying about the Holy of Holies was so Kadosh their only one human being the Kohen Gadol could even enter only one day a year on Yom Kippur the place of God's presence and now you have rodents and foxes desecrating the kodesh action shall we not cry that God's home has been desecrated not only is it destroyed but animals are running through it Shravya Akiva said this is why I am laughing and essentially what he said was that the Newseum have given us prophecies of destruction and desolation and they have given us prophecies of comfort and redemption but you never know how literal the prophecy is supposed to be for example one of the prophecies was foxes shall go through the holy of holies but maybe that's not literal maybe that's an expression but if that's an expression maybe the redemption is also an expression so until I saw the literal fulfillment of the prophecies of desolation I wasn't sure that the redemption would be literal but now that I see that the devastation is carried out exactly as it's written I now have the joy that the redemption will be carried out exactly as it's written and the sages responded to Rabbi Akiva and they said Akiva Nahum tano Akiva Nahum Sonia Akiva you have given us comforts so in a sense when we think about the tragedies that also reminds us that Hashem gave us warning of tragedies and he gave us prophecies of consolation the tragedies have happened now it's going to be time for the consolation okay and that's the Loreen Marcus just just in terms of free association this morning Marcus reminds me of another story a much more recent story many of you have heard of and I probably have even mentioned mentioned him many times the pun of ature of Yosef slow mocha hanuman who was the Rev of the lithuanian town of pune and he came to Eretz Israel before World War two it was interesting that's what the way Mia had 800 learn did Robin and really Godot viktoriya 800 learn a drop on him 799 of them died in the Holocaust the Ponte Vecchio was the only Lithuanian Rev of a community that survived the Holocaust and because of this Rothko Hahnemann was a man with an obsession she said if he was the only one that was kept alive it has to be that God is giving him the task to rebuilt and he became a frenetic rebuilder he built here she vows he built colum he built hospitals he built orphanages he built Hodari me built yeshiva katanas he built Berle schools he was a tremendous tremendous not only Thomas Holcomb but a bowel facet a person with great average Israel of course his main yeshiva was the punty Vichy Shiva but that was not the only thing he did he did gazillion other things as well and funny pitcher of got along with everybody the front of it your of was such an exemplar of about youth right out he was also we might say although that's not how would be it would be described today in front of it he was somewhat of it see uni you know the Israeli flag flew and the pun of it you she would Bonet but I think they still do if they do it now not because they believe in it they do it because fun of a drug did it so they don't they're doing out of respect for him but he did it because he thought it was a genuine thing to celebrate of course he had a great sense of humor the classic line they asked him if you're such a Sione why don't you say halal on your mat smote HC uni says halal on your mats month she's the part of the trove says what do you mean I do exactly what ben-gurion doesn't you MOT smart I don't say tax on you and I don't say hello it says how could I be knighted say your name so he was a tremendous tremendous tremendous person he was also an amazing fundraiser in fact satmar rebbe once said when people were discussing can there be life on other planets in front of it drops the satmar rebbe said I don't know the science here but I know that there cannot be life on other planets because if there would be life on other planets the pun of akhira would have collected money from those other planets he would have gotten there if he didn't go there is God agree that there's the well maybe there maybe there's life but there's no money there's no money to be to be found he would have been there so I want to tell you a live story about the Panavision rough out here two stories Story number one is that he once came to Chicago to collect money he came every year and he came at the same time another masuleh came from the much smaller the vertically achieving Bnei Brak and as soon as the Nevada commercial ax saw The Punisher of he froze because he says who's going to give me money the punter pitcher of is a raconteur he tells stories he tells jokes he has Torah everyone loves him he has a tremendously extroverted jovial loving personality I'm not going to give any money if the Punisher of is here so I figure I'll just sit in the audience and enjoy a beautiful drudger so he sits in the audience he enjoys a beautiful drudge upon a pitcher of you know with Torah and my sermon reminiscences and humor all of those things and people are pulling out their checkbook and they're going to be very generous and the Punisher of says at the end of his speech Robbo sigh I see you're pulling out your checkbook to donate to the sport of Torah there's a very very fine man who's collecting for his Russia in Eretz Israel I request of you that whatever you would have given me please give him because it's a worthy worthy cause and I endorsed that class well suffice it to say that the Nevada commercial ax did a lot better than he ever did before because he got what would have gone to the pun of it you up so he goes over to the punty virtue up afterwards and he says Rebbe I am so so grateful to you but I don't understand you traveled all the way from Eric Israel to Chicago and this by the way was before jet so the old propeller airplanes took a lot last longer and you traveled all the way and you're giving me all the money you're taking all the money to another mosa so listen to what the pun of it you're upset to see what greatness is he said I don't know what you mean maha shiva your yeshiva we're not in competition we're all on the same team if I have made enough money that twenty people could learn for a month let's say why do I care if they're learning under the ceiling of the parameter based measures or they're learning in the Nevada based measures it's the same 20 people here there what's the difference now this is an attitude that's extremely rare even among Russia Sheba's everybody has pride in their particular institution pundit you have said no this is not about me this is not about my honor my glory my institution it's about serving Hashem and therefore we're not competing against each other we're working together everybody is on the same team I make money for Torah I don't make money for pilotage I make money for a tower so you can use use it tremendous tremendous story but that's not directly connected to a star but a ghost but the second story is the second story involves the kyboots vein Herod I don't even know where it is it's in the center of the country here or north and I'm not sure where a new road is but in high road was a kibbutz that was founded by show mare hat so ear so it was a rapidly not just non-religious a very very anti religious kyboots with communist leanings etc odd coup d'etat that the kibbutz official rule was that no torah literature is allowed in the place and no synagogue could be established by the way were five year for many years in her father's original plans there was a rule that you could not have any issue votes in Rahab you did that has to be modified in the course of the year right some of the old some of the old time scientists had very strong views about separation of religion from everything else but be it as it may in the 50s the following thing happens happy what copy maybe either maybe in the late 40s because it was really after World War 2 the father of the kibbutz remember we had been in a concentration camp and when he was liberated he found his way to Israel and he was going to live with his son in her out his son would take him in but what happened was this father happened to be a religious man and for the three or four years he was in a concentration camp he managed to smuggle a miniature tapir kept with him and this remained undiscovered in the concentration camp and he married it to bring it to Eretz Israel and he came to the tour with a note but what the Nazis didn't do in the three years in the concentration camp the ain't highroad kibbutzniks did they discovered there was a Torah and they took the Torah they snatched it out of his hands they threw it over the fence and it landed in the mud and this was something that was so outrageous that even the secular newspapers Haaretz my rib said hey you know maybe that's a little too much you know we understand your Minister here we supports but you stand for it but you know you didn't have to do that and there were Gazzola them at the time who proclaimed that there should be ton it there should be a fast for the desecration of the Torah the Torah be thrown into the mud by Jews in a Jewish country how could that be people rip their garments once again the Punisher have said I will be like Rabbi Akiva for this I laugh rebbi akiva saw the potential of goodness and redemption even in tragedy I see it as well and listen to what the part of it you're upset if they if the show merits where people really thought that Torah was worthless meaningless the irrelevant then why was bother them so much to let it stay in the kibbutz I mean let's imagine somebody had some hobby that they were interested in Japanese paper mache you know paper making whatever it would be let him do it you got what drove them to such anger that they had to take that Torah and throw it over answer because they knew they knew that if the Torah would stay in their key boots even one night something would change they didn't want it to change they hated it so they threw it away but they knew it would make a difference the punter pitcher up says if a Jew still has a sensitivity to the power of Torah even though it reposes them eventually they're gonna go back actually Elie Wiesel made the point not about Torah he made the point very generally that the opposite of love is not hate the opposite of love is indifference love and hate can be very very similar because your passions are aroused indifference is when you're dead inside part of it you're upset if the kyboots is overreacting to such a degree their relationship to the tour is not dead they are still engaged with it albeit in a confrontational negative stance and therefore the public picture says I predict that there will be a minyan in danger out and eventually there will even be a kollel in ain't hurt and if we go forward 6070 years hey the road is not may assure him or Bnei Brak it's not even Rome at Beit Shemesh but most of the people are not religious but there is a daily minion there three times a day and the results so a colo-colo Boca that comes to a high road and they're there form you know for the from 9 to 1 and there is a learning presence and it is well accepted by the community community says you know we're happy that we have some connection to religion enter Toa so the front of each arrived was that type of visionary who even in the darkest moments saw the potential for good when people called him a dreamer when he had all these dreams about doing this and that he said yeah I am a dreamer but most people dream when they're asleep and I have my dreams and I'm awake and indeed British a me was able to be muscly if I really in many many ways I mean I remember part of a drug was lifter in 1968 so I still remember this I was in ninth grade I had just come to know Israel and my Russia Shiva revered him in was very friend was very close to the part of the truth and I have never seen this sense I've never never saw it before never seen that since he was giving his pay them in Yiddish I didn't understand anything we're just giving eulogies then in the middle of the husband he told everybody get off your chair and sit on the ground have you ever seen I've never seen that at any of the volume but he actually told us sits on the ground and part of why it is a tremendous loss is he was a builder of Torah he was a god Alberto but the combination of also the average Israel the tolerance the love of Eretz Israel the acceptance of every Jew it was kind of a harkening back to rev cook and where summers on the norba was was that way that way also the truth the matter is by and large you know it's far and few between kind of having that type of combination and it really was a loss that has never been completely completely filled so forgive me for just reminiscing about it but I like to reminisce about the fun of it your of because I'd like to remember the God was that combined greatness and Torah with the tremendous love for the Jewish people and the love for Eretz Israel even the love from Adina Israel as well it's kind of the order Michelle M a person who you know had all of these components together and once again the ability to see in the greatest darkness the potential of light and the potential of redemption so be well and have a good week and hopefully maybe we be so her to the billion base of Mukesh the mayor of you may know [Music]